Florencia Taylor is a star on the rise.
The Londoner had already received two national awards in the past two years before heading to the Professional Beauty Association’s 2017 North American Hairstyling Awards, or NAHA, in Las Vegas over the weekend.
“This is huge! I still don’t believe that this has happened to me,” she told AM980.
“I came to this country 15 years ago not knowing the language, not knowing the culture, not knowing anything. All of the sudden, I’m where I am today. I feel so blessed and God has given me so much already.”
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Taylor’s love for makeup was sparked at a young age in Beunos Aires, Argentina when she picked up her first makeup brush and began doing makeup for her friends.
She was named the 2016 Mirror Award Canadian Makeup Artist of the year and 2017 Contessa Canadian Makeup Artist of the year and said her photographer, Paula Tizzard, encouraged her to take a chance and enter her work for consideration at NAHA.
“I hear there’s people who have been entering for 10 years, people that have been entering for five years and have never got nominated. I just entered this year just hoping to get noticed, I guess. I wasn’t even expecting to be nominated.”
Being named the 2017 Makeup Artist of the Year at NAHA also provides opportunities for Taylor to be recognized in the industry.
“For the beauty industry, it’s a huge honour and a huge award,” she said.
“There’s very well-known names and you get noticed by big companies like L’Oreal, Aveda.”
Taylor’s work will also be published in the association’s North American magazine.
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